The Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, or OCIA, is the formal process established for welcoming adults into the Catholic Church. Are you interested in sharing your faith? Learning more about your faith? Come to an OCIA meeting to see if this is for you. We welcome all inquirers and encourage those who may only have "thought about it" in the past. There is no obligation, just answers to your questions.

Meetings are held on Tuesday evenings, 7:00-8:30 PM beginning on September 10th, 2024  at Sacred Heart Cathedral. Check the parish calendar for more details. Those interested are encouraged to attend classes and build a familiarity with the Catholic Faith.

• The invitation to such a life configured to Jesus Christ (given gradually, convincingly, prayerfully, and with humility) is the mission of the pre-catechumenate period, the first period of the OCIA process. During this period, inquirers should receive help and attention so that they may purify their intentions and clarify their desire to cooperate with God’s grace.
• Initial conversion is the goal of this period. Conversion, seen as a progressive process, involves various stages of change. Simply stated, conversion involves a turning from something coupled with a turning towards something else. The Christian faith is, above all, conversion to Jesus Christ.

We have the responsibility to answer questions and to give the candidates a suitable explanation of the Gospel

• The period of the catechumenate trains the budding disciple in the Christian life.  This work of formation requires great catechesis. Catechesis is the religious instruction given to a person in preparation for Christian Initiation.
• By the end of the catechumenate, you will have been introduced to Catholic teaching in its entirety by means of comprehensive lessons on the truths of Catholic doctrine and moral life.
• As one learns one also grows in understanding and in action. Conversion and faith should become strong.

• In this period the focus shifts toward spiritual preparation for the sacraments of initiation. The themes of repentance and holiness are constant throughout this period, and it should be permeated with a spirit of prayer and retreat.
• Interior reflection (on God’s love for his people, his faithful provision, his call to turn to him fully), leads participants to repentance, acts of penance, a desire to offer thanksgiving, and more fervent practice of fraternal charity.
• The elect and candidates should turn to an ever-deepening reflection upon Christ the Savior, focusing on the climactic events of the Paschal mystery, which they will encounter directly by means of the Sacraments of Initiation.

• The grace received from the Easter mysteries propels the new Catholics into the final period of post-baptismal catechesis, called mystagogy. The term comes from the Greek mystagogia which refers to instruction in the mysteries or sacraments. Ordinarily, this period following reception of the sacraments of initiation lasts for seven weeks from Easter to Pentecost.
• Mystagogy is properly situated after the reception of the sacraments because only then do our new Catholics, the neophytes, have the grace to understand and appreciate the sacred mysteries of the Church in a more profound manner.
• The process of penetrating deeper into the mysteries of God continues past the period of mystagogy into the remainder of the neophyte year as they frequent the sacraments and strive for holiness.
• While the neophyte year terminates the following Easter, this process of continually penetrating the mysteries characterizes Christian existence. We are pilgrims here on earth, sustained and nourished by the Eucharist, a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that awaits all of us.

Symbolon echoes our Lord’s proclamation two thousand years ago, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). It shows this proclamation still resounds and calls us today. It invites us to seek the face of God and to discover that, all along, he has been seeking us.

The Faith of the Church presents the central teachings of the Catholic faith in their unity, beauty, and vitality. In the early Church, the Creed expressed these beliefs, identifying the Church’s faith and defining the identity of the Christians who professed it. This series sticks close to the Creed. It shows its inner logic, reveals the beauty of its teachings, and highlights the fruits it has brought into the world and continues to bear in the lives of those who profess it.